New way of teaching

Stevis Response To Intervention program making great strides

By Michael Howell

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a new technique in classroom education that is heavily data based and aims at providing a classroom environment that can address the individual needs of every student. Traditionally most schools have implemented what is called the wait to fail model for providing intervention in classroom education. It identifies the students in need by the fact that they have failed. These students are then placed in special education classes.
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Stevensville Elementary teacher Valerie Pateman was pictured on the front cover of the Fall 2008 issue of Northwest Education. Stevensville Elementary was featured in an article titled Balancing Act. The articles author, Bracken Reed, called Stevensville Elementary one of the trailblazers in implementing a Response to Intervention Program into the school. The program is designed to help students, through early intervention, to meet core requirements and reduce the number of students that require referral special education services.
Together, Reading First and RTI have completely changed the way Stevensville Elementary does business and the results are undeniable, wrote Reed. The cover photo and other photographs illustrating the article were taken by Pam Voth. Michael Howell photo.

Mitchell Slough case makes national news

By Michael Howell

The Mitchell Slough case, a long drawn out legal battle over the status of an old channel of the Bitterroot River, has caught the attention of the national press before, with stories appearing in both the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. Now, following the recent unanimous ruling by the Montana Supreme Court establishing that streambed protection laws apply and public access is allowed, the case has made the news in the New York Times once again.
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Anthony Marnell II built his home over a tributary of Mitchell Slough called Brushy Creek. It is reported that you can watch the fish in the stream through a glass floor in his living room. Following the Supreme Court ruling that the tributary, along with the rest of Mitchell Slough, is open to public access for fishing, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Park's Chief Attorney Bob Lane is quoted in the New York Times saying, "I guess they'll have to portage around his living room." Below, Randy Rose drops a line into the Mitchell at Bell Crossing.

Slow finish for big game season in West-Central Montana

Big game rifle season ended Sunday with below average harvest totals for deer and elk in west-central Montana.

White-tailed deer harvest did pick up as the season progressed, but totals still finished 17 percent behind last year and 12 percent short of the five-year average. Mule deer totals are 25 percent shy of last year and 29 percent under the five-year average.
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